Reasons for Living (Reworked)
by BlackDomus500
Summary: Minato Arisato is a boy with a troubled past. His mother died giving birth to him and his father blames him for it leaving him a broken boy. Now nine years old, he's been experiencing the 'otherworld' for two years and goes to the tower as solace from his home. But when he goes to the tower this time, he runs into a troubled family who will give him a reason to live again.
1. Awakening

**Awakening**

 **[Author's note: So I'm completely reworking this whole story mainly the beginning before Minako arrives because after reading it over, it was really terrible. So forget almost everything that happened in the original version (well some stuff is going to be the same but improved upon) for several reasons which will be explained at the end of each chapter. One major reason and it happened throughout the whole story was that there was a crap load of spelling errors since I didn't really spell check (I know I did the number one thing you're not supposed to do as a writer). Anyways, this story is still going through P4 and the two arena games but they will be continued in separate stories instead of just one huge story. So hopefully the current readers of old version enjoy the changes that were made and yes I changed Minato's persona from Vishnu into someone from Greek mythology because this game's story is Greek mythology themed so it wouldn't make sense to have Minato's new persona be from Hindu mythology.]**

In the late hours of Iwatodai, a young boy got off the train at Tatsumi Port Island Station. He had short blue hair that covered his left eye and he was wearing a plain white T-shirt with blue jeans. He also had a bruise on his cheek and a couple on his arms. The small amount of people still at the station looked at the boy with concern but went back to what they were doing.

"Stupid dad…" grumbled the boy, "It's not my fault mom died." He looked down sadly, "Maybe it is…."

The boy sighed and started walking towards Gekkoukan High. He was walking for about thirty minutes when his watch started to beep indicating that it was midnight, "Well, here we go again…" He whispered to himself.

The world turned green and everything that was running on electricity stopped working. Everyone that was still out on the streets was replaced with coffins and there were puddles of either blood or water that was red. The only thing that had some color to it was a giant tower further away.

A normal person would've been freaked out about the change but the boy was used to this atmosphere, "Yay, my favorite time of the day." The boy muttered sarcastically and then shook his head, "Geez, I sound like a crazy person." He continued walking towards the school now turned into a tower. Since the tower was so tall, he was able to see it from where he was at and that it looked like a bunch of sections of other towers built on top of each other that some twisted artist would make.

After a while of walking, the boy finally made it to the road the high school was on but to his surprise, he noticed seven people walking from the other direction, _"_ _W-Who are those people?"_ He hid around the school's border wall and peeked around the corner. Now that he had a better look at them, he saw six men and a little girl that looked about his age. Four of the men were wearing black tuxedos. One of the men had glasses and a large white coat which made the boy think he was a scientist. The last man was wearing a brown tuxedo with short gelled hair but what made the man unique was that he was wearing an eye-patch. But, what confused him the most though, was the little girl who had red hair done up in twin curls that was wearing a fancy white blouse with a red skirt.

" _Who are those people and why do they have that girl with them and why aren't they in those coffins like the other people and why does that man have an eye-patch? Is he a pirate?"_

The group of people stopped in front the gate and the eye-patched man grabbed what must've been a key from his suit unlocking the gate and they proceeded to walk up the stairs and into the tower. Once the boy saw them go into the tower, he ran to the gate and opened it. He then walked up the stairs and opened the door quietly but just enough for him to peek inside. He started hearing voices and since there was an echo in the mostly empty lobby of the tower, he was able to make out most of what they were saying.

"Useless against shadows…potential developed…devoured…" The boy assumed it was the scientist that was talking since he saw his lips moving.

" _I can barely hear them even with this echo but what did he mean by shadows, potential, and_ _…_ _devoured!?"_ _The boy thought a little worried._

"Do all scientists that work at…are a bunch of psychopaths..." One of the men said with the black tuxedo.

"….Sir, is it alright to bring your daughter here?" Another one of the men asked.

The girl looked at the man "….don't mind at all….I requested to come here."

The brown suited man looked at the same man "….you heard her."

The boy looked away and started thinking, " _So that man with the eye-patch is that girl's father? But why would he bring his daughter somewhere this dangerous though?"_

"Ngh…Agh…Aaaagh! Gaaaaaah!"

The boy was taken out of his thoughts when he heard the screaming and looked back inside. To his horror, he saw one of the men melting into a black gob. It proceeded to form red eyes and grow four arms, _"W-what is that thing!?"_ The boy started shaking with fear seeing the monster.

The remaining men ran by the family and started shooting at the monster but it was having no effect. The monster crawled towards one of the men and slashed him out of the way making him die instantly, scaring the other two guards and leaving the family wide open. The monster looked over at the two and started crawling towards them. The girl ran in front of her father and held her arms out to her sides intending to protect him no matter what, "Leave my father alone!" She screamed.

The eye-patched man looked in horror at his daughter, "Mitsuru! What are you doing!? Leave now!"

The boy was going to run in and try to help but something happened making him stop because something appeared in front of the girl.

A tall woman-like figure holding a rapier in one hand and ceremonial dagger appeared in front of the girl.

The boy's eyes went wide with shock, _"W-what is that thing!? D-did she just summon that!?"_

The woman-like figure looked down at the shadow and stabbed it with its rapier. It then lifted the rapier with the shadow throwing the monster up and then used the dagger to slash the monster. The monster screeched out after getting slashed and it disintegrated. The figure turned around and nodded at the girl then disappeared.

The girl looked back at her father. "I'm glad you're safe…Father." She then collapsed.

"Mitsuru?!" The eye-patched man knelt by the girl and held her against him.

"Ah…That was a persona! She was able to summon one! This is magnificent! You should be excited that your own daughter has persona!" The scientist was practically bouncing with excitement.

"Why are you happy about this!? Now, she's going to be stuck into our family's curse!" The eye-patched man looked down sadly at his daughter, "All I wanted for her was to find her own path, to be a normal child, not to be stuck with this burden…"

Mitsuru looked up at her dad "it's alright father I'll protect you…" and she passed out.

"Mitsuru…"

The boy looked away from the door "So her name's Mitsuru… but I wonder what the family curse her dad was talking about…well it doesn't matter, I should leave." But, as he was about to leave, he heard the horrifying screams from before. The boy quickly looked back inside and to his horror; the other two men with black tuxedos became the same kind of monsters as the other one.

Both of the monsters started crawling towards the father and daughter. The man looked around him and noticed the dead guard's gun was right next to him. He reached for the gun and started shooting at the monsters. Even though he knew that guns did nothing to these monsters, he would've tried anything to protect his daughter. He kept shooting at the monsters till the gun ran out of bullets. Out of frustration, he threw the gun at the shadows but missed making it bounce towards the entrance of the tower. "Stay away from her!" He turned around to protect his daughter by using his body. Even though he knew it wasn't going to stop the inevitable, he rather die first then let and see his daughter die first.

The boy looked on in horror _"I have to help them but how!?"_ He looked around and saw the gun the man threw. He ran into the tower and with all his might, he threw the gun at one of the monsters that was closest to the family. The gun hit the shadow having the desired effect by getting the monsters attention, "H-hey u-uglies! Come and catch me!" The monsters started crawling at full speed towards the boy provoked, _"Good thing, I can run fast."_ The boy started to run around in the lobby away from the three with the shadows chasing him.

The eye-patched man looked back in confusion and noticed the boy was getting chased by the shadows and he shouted at the boy while getting up still holding Mitsuru, "What the hell are you doing Kid!? Get the hell out of here before you get yourself killed!"

The boy slowed down and looked at the man, "Don't worry sir! I got this! Just try to get her to safet-" But that was a bad move and one of the shadows caught the boy with a small scratch right in the leg. It wasn't a terrible scratch but it was enough for the boy to trip and fall with a yelp.

"Kid!" The man wanted to help him but he didn't know what to do. Not only that, he still had Mitsuru to look after so he looked at the scientist hoping he would actually do something, "Go and get him!"

"It's…fine sir! Just go! Forget about me!" Minato quickly flipped over and started to crawl backwards until his back hit the wall. He looked at the two shadows slowly going towards him, _"So, this is how it ends huh? Maybe this is what I get for what I did to my mom, now my dad can be happy now_ _…_ _"_ He just sat there waiting for the inevitable while the shadows slowly came closer. Just as the shadows were about to reach him, the boy held his head like it was in pain, _"W-what is going o-on with my h-head!? It feels like it's gonna split open!"_

 _"Thou art I, and I am thou. From the sea of thy soul I cometh for I am Aeolus, God of the Winds!"_

 _"W-what!?"_

A tall dark skinned man-like figure with green eyes appeared in front of him. He was wearing a green chalcidian helmet. On his body, he was wearing a green royal muscle cuirass over a black tunic with a green armored royal belt over the waist of the tunic and on his legs; he wore green armored greaves that covered the shins and calves with green boots. Lastly, he was holding a black Greek hoplite sword.

Aeolus looked at the two shadows with a smirk and slashed horizontally at the two shadows instantly destroying them. He turned around and gave the boy a thumbs up before disappearing.

The boy smiled weakly and whispered, "Wow, I can summon one of those things…too…" he then passed out.

 **[End Notes: So I ended the chapter with Minato passing out because this chapter was supposed to be from Minato's perspective, so he shouldn't hear what happens after he passes out and also Takeharu's thoughts but you'll hear his thoughts about Minato having the potential in the next chapter. About Aeolus as Minato's new persona in this story, I chose him because well he's the god of wind in Greek mythology and Minato's main strength is speed and he uses wind moves and Sukukaja.]**


	2. Sins of Our Fathers

**Sins of Our Fathers**

 **Tatsumi Memorial Hospital**

Takeharu was sitting in the emergency waiting room thinking about the boy who saved him and Mitsuru, _"Who is this boy and why does he have a persona? Not only that, how long has he experienced the dark hour?"_ Takeharu was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the door leading to the medical rooms opened making him stand up while a doctor walked up to him, "How are they doing?"

The doctor smiled, "Your daughter is okay, she's just over-exhausted."

Takeharu formed a small smile, "That's good news." But then he frowned realizing that the doctor only said that Mitsuru was over-exhausted, "And the boy?"

"He's over-exhausted as well. But there's something disturbing…"

"And that would be?"

The doctor sighed, "He has bruises all over his body and his arms. Which means he either gets into fights a lot or the worse case…is that he's been physically abused by his parents."

Takeharu's eye went wide, _"Poor boy…so that may explain why he has a persona…"_ "Is there any way for me to get ahold of his parents?"

"We would have the medical records but we don't know if his parents would have the same number since he seems to be around nine years old and he didn't have a cell phone on him either."

Takeharu sighed, "I'm just going to have to wait for him to wake up then. But, call me right away when either one of them wakes up."

* * *

 **The Next Day**

Takeharu was sitting behind a brown mahogany desk with only a computer and a book that was labeled "Persona" telling Shuji, who was sitting in a chair in front of the desk, what happened in the tower and how the boy might have gotten a persona.

Shuji held his chin thinking, "I'm sorry to hear that your daughter has a persona. But about this boy having a persona too, you say it's because he was abused which might mean that children might get personas from going through traumatic events."

"Yes…that seems to be the case." _"But what about Mitsuru? Was it because of her mother dying?"_

"I know that your daughter being a persona-user is hurting you. But, you could have this boy help her since he has a persona too."

" _Doesn't even offer sympathy for the boy…"_ "I'm not going to force the boy to do something that's not even his problem."

"So you rather have your daughter do this alone then? From what you told me about how this boy acted in this tower, it will seem like he would instantly agree to help us."

Takeharu glared Shuji, "I rather have neither of them be persona-users!" He then sighed, "But you are right though…just get everything ready for their training in Yakushima and refit Aigis with rubber bullets. I'm going to stay here and wait for them to wake up."

Shuji nodded and got up then left.

Takeharu sighed, _"I guess Mitsuru having a persona is my punishment for helping my father and then not stopping him when he started to become nihilistic…but this boy… even though I hate to have him be part of my father's terrible mistake…he could help Mitsuru so she doesn't have to do this alone…that's the least I can do for her…"_

* * *

 **One week later**

 **Tatsumi Memorial Hospital**

In a hospital room that was holding the two children. Minato started waking up and slowly got up into a sitting position. He looked around seeing that it was a white room, "Where am I…?" He then spotted the girl in a bed next to him a little farther out to the side, "Oh, it's that girl…what was her name…Mitsuru?"

The door opened and the doctor appeared noticing that Minato was awake; he quickly walked over to him and sat on the chair next to the bed. "Ah, you're awake. How are you feeling?'

Minato looked at the doctor, _"Oh, I guess I'm at the hospital."_ "I think I'm okay but my head hurts though." He looked over at Mitsuru, "Is she okay?"

He smiled "Yes, she's okay, just exhausted." He put a hand on Minato's shoulder, "I'll go get some medicine for your headache." He then got up and left the room.

"What a nice doctor…" Minato laid back down and closed his eyes falling asleep.

Once the doctor left the room, he took out his cell phone pressing a few buttons and put it to his ear, "He's awake now."

* * *

 **An hour later**

Takeharu walked into the hospital room and walked towards the doctor, "How are they doing?"

"The boy is doing fine, he just has a headache. He went back to sleep an hour ago."

" _I knew that would be the case…"_ He looked over at Mitsuru, "How about my daughter? Any changes?"

He frowned, "She hasn't made any changes but she should wake up soon based on the boy waking up today."

Takeharu signed, "Alright, I'll stay here and wait for her then."

The doctor nodded and left.

Takeharu walked to the chair next to the bed and sat in it. He then started rubbing Mitsuru's head, "I'm sorry Mitsuru…for bringing you into this mess…"

Mitsuru's eyes started opening, "…father?"

Takeharu smiled, "Hello Mitsuru, I'm glad you're awake."

Mitsuru slowly sat up, "W-where am I, father?" She started to look around and noticed Minato, "And who is that boy?"

"You're at the hospital; you passed out after you summoned your persona."

"My Persona?" Mitsuru gave him a confused look, "You mean those things we're supposed to use to fight the shadows with?"

"Yes, do you remember anything?"

"I..I think so." Mitsuru held her head trying to remember, "I…I think my persona's name is Penthesilea…"

"Penthesilea?"

"Yes, that's what she told me before she came out."

" _So Personas can communicate to their master_ _…t_ _hat's right, I remember seeing her and Minato's personas gesturing to them. I'm surprised my father didn't write this down in his notes…"_

"Owe…" Mitsuru held her head in both her hands, "My head hurts…."

Takeharu looked at her in worry, "Don't push yourself…"

"I'm sorry father…I still feel tired…" Mitsuru laid back down and closed her eyes instantly falling asleep.

Takeharu sighed and then looked over at Minato seeing that he was waking up, _"Okay their timing of waking up is…odd."_ He walked over to Minato's bed with the chair and sat down in it next to the bed, "Hello, I hope you're feeling better."

Minato yawned and looked over to the side seeing Takeharu, _"Oh, it's her father."_ "Yes sir, I'm feeling better thank you for asking."

Takeharu gave him a small smile, "You're welcome but I should be thanking you, you saved me and my daughter."

Minato shook his head, "No, need to thank me sir; I was just doing what I thought was right." Minato then looked at him confused, "But what did I summon back there? He said that his name was Aeolus and also what were those monsters?"

"Well, those monsters are called Shadows and this 'Aeolus' you summoned is called a Persona. We use them to fight the Shadows."

Minato nodded, "Okay, I think I understand."

Takeharu looked at him surprised, "You understand?"

"Well I figure that they would be called shadows since their black like shadows and since your gun didn't do anything to them but your daughter's Persona and my Persona were able to defeat them. I just put two and two together."

Takeharu was impressed, " _This boy is pretty smart to be able to figure it out that fast."_

Minato looked at Mitsuru, "Um, how is your daughter sir?"

Takeharu was taken out of his thoughts and looked at Mitsuru, "She's doing fine, she just has a headache though."

"That's good to hear."

Takeharu looked back at him, "Do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

Minato nodded, "Yeah, go ahead."

"Well first, what's your name?"

"It's Minato Arisato sir."

Takeharu held out his hand, "Nice to meet you, Minato."

Minato shook his hand, "Nice to meet you too. Can I ask for your name sir?"

"It's Takeharu Kirijo."

Minato's eyes went wide, "Kirijo!? That's the company that basically runs everything in Iwatodai and Port Island! So you're the owner!?"

Takeharu nodded, "Yes, that is correct; now what were you doing at the tower?"

Minato looked down in worry, "Um, am I in trouble?"

Takeharu chuckled, "No, of course not. If you weren't there, we wouldn't be having this conversation now. I just wanted to know why you were there, that's all."

"Okay, that's good." Minato signed, "The reason I went to the tower…was to get away from my father…"

" _So it is true then…"_ "Why did you want to get away from your father?"

Minato started sobbing, "M-my m-mom died giving birth to me."

Takeharu's eye went wide not expecting that, _"His mother died giving birth to him!?"_ "I'm sorry to hear that." He knew that saying that he was sorry didn't do much but what else could he say?

Minato continued, "My dad acted like how a dad should act but after I turned five he started blaming me for my mom's death. Ever since then, the only time he would talk to me was to talk down to me….At first I was sadden by it but then I realized that I deserved it since I was the one who caused mom's death. So I just focused on my studies to get away from the sadness and kept trying to tell myself that it wasn't my fault." Minato started to full on crying, "B-But two years later, m-my dad s-started to p-physically hurt me and that's when I started to experience the 'otherworld'. I guess it was because I felt died inside because I was scared of the otherworld, at first, but then I saw that tower and it looked like a safe haven, so I've been going to the tower for two years but then I ran into you guys."

"I'm sorry that you went through all this. No child should be put through what you've been through but there's one thing that you should know." Takeharu put his hand on his shoulder, "You are not the one to blame for your mother's death; these things happen and you can't stop it no matter how much it will hurt…"

Minato scoffed, "Really? Then why did my dad hurt me like he did?"

"You may be too young to understand this but when you lose the person you love, it hurts you emotionally. Sometimes making us do things we regret because of it. But, your dad handled it the worst way possible…"

Minato wiped his eyes and looked down in thought over what Takeharu said, "I think I understand now sir…"

Takeharu frowned, "I know what it's like to have a father that did something that would make you dead inside even though I helped him do it and honestly, I've been a bad father as well because of it."

Minato looked at him surprised, _"Why would he be dead inside from helping his dad? Also, how could he be a bad dad? He seemed so sad about his daughter being a persona-user."_ "Um, may I ask what happened?"

Takeharu nodded and sighed, "My father did something that caused a catastrophe and even though I didn't planned for that to happen, I still didn't do anything to stop it and I helped him get to that point. Not only that, I focused on helping my father and then fixing my own father's mistake, so I didn't pay any attention to my daughter. I had my maids take care of her and hired private tutors to educate her so she has no people skills and sounds like a mature woman instead of a young girl. But after seeing her try and sacrifice herself for me that night, it made me realized that I neglected her…and now she has a Persona…"

Minato thought about what he said and then shook his head, "You're not a neglectful dad. You were just helping your dad with whatever it was. Mitsuru still loves you just from how she was willing to sacrifice herself for you."

" _I doubt you would be saying the same thing once I tell you what my father was doing but I need this boy to help us…so I have to not tell him the truth yet."_ Takeharu chuckled, "I guess you're right. I just hope someday, I will be able to get rid of this curse so I can start being an actual father."

Minato looked down, "You said that we use these 'personas' to fight and your daughter needs help." He then looked at Takeharu with a new found hope, "So please let me help you! I can't let you guys do this alone!"

Takeharu looked at Minato in surprise, _"Shuji was right, he is willing to help us instantly."_ Even though he needed Minato's help, a part of him still didn't like the idea of making him do this especially after what he's been through already but then again he would go back to his abusive father but by allowing him to join, he can bring him into a better home, "Okay, I'll allow it."

Minato's eyes opened wide and excitedly replied, "Thank you, sir!"

Takeharu smiled, "I should be thanking you again and as thanks for helping and saving us, you can stay with me and my daughter at Yakushima to not only train but to enjoy yourself."

"R-really!? Takeharu nodded, "Thank you sir!"

"No need for thanks, it's the least I can do for you."

"But sir, my dad, what are you going to tell him?"

"Don't worry about that, I'll take care of that. I do need your home address." He pulled out his phone and went to the memo app handing it to Minato, "Here just type it in."

Minato looked at the phone in interest and started putting in his address, "Whoa! They have phones where you can press on the screen!" Takeharu actually laughed at his excitement.

After Minato gave him his phone back, Takeharu got up, "Now get some sleep we're going to be leaving tomorrow morning."

Minato nodded then laid back down and for the first time in a long time he fell asleep with a smile.

* * *

 **Secret Lab**

Takeharu walked through the elevator door that led to the lab and saw Shuji as well as various scientists preparing two rooms with a bed in each room, "What are you preparing for Shuji?"

Shuji turned around with a smile that sent some warning bells to Takeharu, "We're preparing to experiment on Mitsuru and the boy for what makes them awaken to their Personas naturally."

Takeharu glared at Shuji, "You will not be experimenting on my daughter and the boy! I am not going to be like my Father and run tests on children especially my daughter! Do you understand me!?"

Shuji's eye twitched, "And how do you suppose we find other natural Persona-users then?"

"We'll figure that out when the time comes." Takeharu sighed, "But for now, we will train the both of them so they'll learn how to use their Persona's abilities.

Shuji nodded, "Fine then, everything is complete for their training."

"Good. Now I have to go prepare Mitsuru's and Minato's trip back here."

"And I will be preparing for their training tomorrow then."

Takeharu nodded and proceeded to the elevator

Shuji gritted his teeth when he left, _"He thinks that he can control me!? It doesn't matter though because I just need those two to destroy the shadows so I can finally achieve my dream and if worst comes to worst, I will use those three if I can't find anymore of them…even if they're unstable."_

 **{End Notes: So I kinda made Takeharu a little OOaC in this chapter in the old version. Also, they don't say anything about what happened to Mitsuru's mom and she says that ever since the incident happened it was like he was dead inside so wouldn't he feel dead inside if his wife died? So I just had it changed where he focused on helping his dad and then trying to fix his father's mistake. I also, wanted to give his thoughts about what he feels about Minato and Mitsuru having persona in this story. Now only chapter one was through Minato's perspective but from now on it's going through everyone's perspective. So the next chapter is going to be Minato and Mitsuru meeting each other and yes, unlike the last version, Mitsuru is going to act like Mitsuru.]**

 **Reviews:**

 **Blue Cipher:** Yeah it has been a long time, I reread the story and thought it wasn't good enough and I made Mitsuru and Takeharu OOC. No there's not going to be no Pimpnato haha, I'm not a big fan of Harems. But, yes I'm going to fix it because I didn't show them actually hanging out together before they get into the relationship.


	3. The Start of a Friendship

**The Start of a Friendship**

 **The Next Day**

 **Hospital Room**

Takeharu walked into the room and noticed that Mitsuru was sitting up looking at Minato. He walked to her bed and sat on the chair, "Good morning, Mitsuru. How long have you been up?"

Mitsuru quickly looked towards her father's voice and smiled, "Good morning father, I have just woken up."

"How are you feeling? Is your head still hurting?"

Mitsuru shook her head, "My head isn't hurting anymore so I'm feeling better." She then looked back over at Minato, "Who is he again father? I know you were going to tell me yesterday but I fell asleep."

Takeharu smiled, "He's name is Minato Arisato. After you fell unconscious, my other two bodyguards turned into Shadows. Minato came into the tower and distracted the Shadows but they were able to scratch him making him awaken to his Persona." He left out the part about Minato awakening to his Persona because of his mother's death and his father's abuse since it was up to Minato if he wanted to share that news with Mitsuru.

Mitsuru looked at her Father surprised, "He has a Persona too? And he saved both of us?" Takeharu nodded, "I should thank him properly when he wakes up then."

"Make sure that you do. Now there's something else I should tell you, Minato will be staying with us to train both of your Personas to help us."

Mitsuru looked at him in shock, "Father! We can't have him do that! This is our family's curse; we shouldn't bring other people into our problems!"

"You shouldn't be part of my father's past either Mitsuru, but now you are and you need all the help you can get. Not only that, he's really eager to help us so there's nothing to worry about."

Mitsuru looked down in thought, _"He seems eager to help us? I wonder why he is."_ She looked at Minato, _"He did save us and if father trusts him then I should."_ Mitsuru looked back at her father smiling, "Okay, I'll be glad to have him help us."

Takeharu smiled, "That's good to hear; now I have to go get both of your release papers and get ready for our departure to Yakushima. I've brought you your usual outfit so go get dressed when I leave. If Minato wakes up before I get back, introduce yourself, okay?"

Mitsuru bowed, "Yes, father."

"Thank you." Takeharu got up and left the room

* * *

 **Thirty Minutes later**

Mitsuru was sitting on the hospital bed waiting for either Minato to wake up or her father to come back. That's when she noticed Minato waking up, _"He's finally waking up."_

Minato woke up and got into sitting position, "Hey, my head doesn't hurt anymore, yes!" He shouted excitedly. Mitsuru chuckled making him turned towards her, "Huh? Oh wow, I didn't know you were up, um how are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine Arisato, my head doesn't hurt anymore and from what you shouted I assume you're okay as well?"

Minato blushed in embarrassment, "Oh, um yeah, I'm doing fine, thank you."

"You're welcome." Mitsuru gave him a small smile, "Father told me what you did for us at the tower so I wanted to properly thank you for saving us."

Minato smiled at her, "Oh, you're welcome, I was just doing what I thought was right." He then realized that she knew his last name, "Um, how do you know my last name?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. My father told me your name when we were talking earlier, my name is Mitsuru Kirijo."

"Oh okay. Well nice to meet you, Mitsuru."

"Likewise, Minato."

Mitsuru noticed his leg was bandaged up, "Father mentioned you got scratched by one of those Shadows…how badly did it hurt?"

Minato laughed, "Not bad really, I'm used to being hurt anyways."

Mitsuru looked at him confused, "You're used to being hurt?"

Minato tried to hide his sadness by laughing again, "I'm a reckless person so I'm used to getting hurt."

"Oh, okay." Mitsuru then held her chin thinking, "My father said that you were eager to help us, why is that?"

Minato decided to hide the whole truth, "Well it's because I have this power and I couldn't let you do this alone. _Also, because I want to get away from my dad…"_

Mitsuru smiled, "Thank you for wanting to help me and my Father."

"Of course." Minato started thinking since they would be helping each other, they might as well be friends, "Um, does this make us friends now? Since we're helping each other?"

Mitsuru looked at him confused, "Friends?"

Minato looked at her confused, "You don't know what friends are?"

Mitsuru looked down, "No…I was never taught what friends were."

"Well a friend is someone you can talk to, share secrets with, to rely on, and to be there for you whenever you need help. Basically someone you can trust."

Mitsuru looked back up, "Someone I can trust? Well I trust you because Father does. So that means that we should be friends then." Mitsuru held out her hand towards him.

Minato smiled, "I guess that makes sense. Then yeah, I'm glad to be your friend!" Minato grabbed her hand and shook it.

As they were doing their handshake, Takeharu walked in with a duffel bag noticing the handshake, making him smile at both of them, "I'm glad you two are becoming fast friends."

They both turned behind them hearing his voice, "Hey Mr. Kirijo! Yep we're friends now!" "Yes we are, father."

"I'm glad to hear it." Takeharu held out the duffel bag, "Here Minato, I brought you some clothes." Minato grabbed it and looked inside to see a set of clothes and a pair of shoes."I brought you some clothes to wear to replace your old clothes. Now go change your clothes then we can leave."

"Thank you, sir!" Minato put the clothes back in the bag and ran into the bathroom.

After the bathroom doors shut, Takeharu looked at Mitsuru "You seem quite fond of him so quickly."

Mitsuru nodded still looking where Minato ran to, "He saved us when he could have just run away and not only that, he wants to help us even though we are to blame for what happened."

Takeharu sighed, "Mitsuru how many times have I told you to stop blaming yourself for what happened. It is my responsibility for what has happened, not yours."

"But, Father…" Mitsuru started but Takeharu interrupted her

"Enough!" Takeharu sighed again, "You are to wait for Minato here and meet me outside at the entrance after he gets done, understood?"

Mitsuru looked down, "…Yes, Father"

He turned around to leave. He opened the door but looked back at her, "I'm sorry for yelling but you need to stop blaming yourself for my father's mistake." He then walked into the hallway closing the door.

Mitsuru looked down sobbing even though she knew her Father was right. She was still part of the family so their history was part of her history and she desperately wanted to fix that because ever since that incident her Father looked dead inside. She just wanted him to be happy again.

"Hey, are you okay?"

She looked up feeling a hand on her shoulder and saw that it was Minato. He was wearing a blue short sleeve dress shirt, with a closed black buttoned black dress vest over the shirt. He had black dress pants on with a black belt and he had black dress shoes as well. She wiped her eyes, "I'm fine, my father is waiting for us out at the entrance."

Even though Minato heard about her grandfather's mistake, he didn't talk about so maybe he could hear about it from her, "What does your dad mean by his father's mistake?"

Mitsuru shook her head, "…I'm sorry but its better if my father told you."

"It's okay, I understand. Well I guess we should go meet up with your dad then." Minato walked over to the door and opened it gesturing to the hallway, "After you, Mitsuru."

Mitsuru formed a small smile and walked outside to the hallway not before replying, "Thank you, Minato."

Minato smiled back at her and they both proceeded to the hospital's entrance

Takeharu was waiting for the both of them and once he heard the entrance door open, he turned around and saw the both of them, "Ah, there you two are, are you two ready to go?"

Minato looked over to the limo, "Whoa, is that a limo!?"

Takeharu chuckled, "Yes, we're going to the docks."

Minato looked at him confused, "To the docks?" His eyes went wide realizing that they were going on the boat, "We're going on a boat too!?" Minato was practically bouncing with excitement.

Takeharu chuckled, "Yes, unless you're planning for us to swim to Yakushima? Now come on, let's get going."

The three of them went into the limo and started heading to the docks

* * *

 **Inside the Limousine**

Minato was having the time of his life. He went from just hiding from his dad at the tower, then saving Takeharu and Mitsuru's lives by awakening to a Persona, and now he was in a limo then to a boat to live at a house on an island, _"Maybe now I can finally have a reason to live."_

"You look like you're having fun there, Minato."

Minato looked over at Takeharu, "Yeah! I never thought that I would be in something like this!"

Takeharu chuckled, "Well if you like this wait till you see the boat and mansion."

"Really! We're going to be living in a mansion!?" Takeharu nodded, "Oh wow! This is great!" Minato looked over at Mitsuru who was looking at him in confusion and amusement, "Um, is there something wrong Mitsuru?"

Mitsuru shook her head, "I'm sorry; I'm just not used to seeing someone excited about a limo or a boat."

Minato looked away embarrassed and laughed nervously, "I must've looked weird then."

Takeharu couldn't help but laugh, "Excuse my daughter Minato, she's not used to dealing with people the same age as her."

" _Oh yeah, Takeharu told me that she had private tutors instead of going to school."_ Minato looked at Mitsuru,"It's okay, I understand."

Mitsuru gave him a small smile, "Thank you for understanding."

Minato was quiet for a bit till he thought about their family's curse that they were talking about, "Kirijo-san? What is your family's curse that you were talking about?"

Takeharu sighed while Mitsuru tensed up, "I'll tell you when we get on the boat since we're almost at the docks. All I'll say right now is that it involves the other world."

Minato looked at him in shock, "It's about the other world!?"

Takeharu frowned, "Yes, what I may say would probably change your mind about joining us."

Minato shook his head, "I doubt that Kirijo-san, anything's better than going back to my dad."

Mitsuru looked at him with confusion, "Why would you not want to be with your Father?"

"I-I don't want to talk about it right now…"

She was about to ask why but her Father stopped her. She looked at him and he shook his head basically telling her not to push it.

" _I wonder why he hates his own father…"_

* * *

 **Yacht**

 **Deck**

"This is so cool!" I can't believe I'm on a boat!" Minato screamed looking out towards the sea holding his hands on the rails.

Mitsuru was looking at Minato with amusement. She was already used to being on a boat so she was indifferent about it. But she still felt the need to apologize for making him think that he was being weird in the limo.

"Excuse me Minato, but I wanted to apologize for thinking that you were being weird. Like father said, I've never been around people around my age."

"Is that why you sound and talk like an adult?"

Mitsuru glared at him, "Is that weird to you?"

Minato smiled at her, "Of course not, everyone has something unique to them."

She looked at him surprised, "You think I'm unique?"

Minato scratched his head, "Well yeah, you're really smart for our age, I think that's cool."

Mitsuru blushed from the compliment, "Thank you. I think you're unique as well."

That surprised Minato, "Really?"

She nodded, "You're so carefree and you're willing to jump straight into danger even knowing the risks for strangers. I think I admire that about you."

Minato blushed at that compliment, "Um…that's great to hear. Thanks."

"You're welcome." Mitsuru looked behind him and saw her father coming, "Oh, here comes father."

Minato turned around, "Hey there Kirijo-san." He noticed that Takeharu had a stern look on his face, "Is there something wrong?"

Takeharu shook his head, "No but I need to talk to you, it's time you learn about our family's curse." Mitsuru went tense again and walked to the opposite side of the boat since she hated hearing about what her grandfather did.

"Oh okay, Kirijo-san."

"Now have you ever read about time and space?"

Minato nodded, "Yeah, I used to read a lot so sometimes I would read about that stuff."

Takeharu looked out to the sea, "Well, my father was obsessed with the shadows. He found out that they can harness the ability to control time and space as well as many other abilities. He collected a significant amount of shadows over the years thinking he can control the power but towards the final stages of the experiments he lost control of the shadows thus creating the Dark Hour and Tartarus."

Minato looked at him confused, "The Dark Hour and Tartarus?"

"The Dark Hour is a secret hour that happens after midnight and Tartarus is the tower that you visited."

Minato nodded, "Okay I guess that makes sense, so what happened after he lost control of the shadows?"

"The mass of shadows spilt up into twelve massive shadows."

Minato was in disbelief but then nodded, "I can't believe it but if I and Mitsuru beat these twelve shadows we can end the Dark Hour and Tartarus?"

Takeharu nodded, "Yes, I believe so."

Minato nodded but there was one thing that he wanted to know and that was why the tower is at the school, "But why does the school turn into Tartarus?"

Takeharu sighed, "Because my father's experiments were conducted at Gekkoukan High and because it was done at the school, there was a massive amount of students that were hospitalized."

Minato looked down shaking his head, "That's terrible…" He then shook his head, "But Kirijo-san, this isn't your fault though, it's your dad's."

"Yes, but I didn't try to stop him."

That's what confused Minato, "Why not?"

"Because I thought it would be impossible, once he obsessed over something there's no way I could have stopped him."

Minato smiled, "Well now you have me and Mitsuru to help you end this."

Takeharu looked down shaking his head, "That's what makes me feel even worst…"

Minato shook his head, "Kirijo-san, if it wasn't for you I would probably be beaten right now but now I will be hurt for a good cause…wait that sounds wrong."

Takeharu chuckled, "You're an interesting boy, Minato." He then looked over at Mitsuru sighing, "And about Mitsuru, I tried keeping her away from all this but she kept on insisting on going to Tartarus."

Minato thought for a moment, "All we have to do is defeat the twelve Shadows right? Well I'll train my hardest to fight them, that way we can end the Dark Hour and go back to being normal kids or more like teenagers. So you don't have to worry, Kirijo-san."

Takeharu smiled at Minato, "I like your enthusiasm Minato, I guess I should leave it all up to you then."

"You can count on me! I should go see how Mitsuru's doing I know this must be hard on her." Minato ran to go talk to Mitsuru.

He looked at the retreating Minato, _"That boy has a lot of energy but that's not going to be enough to fight these twelve shadows. Hopefully we can find more persona-users…"_

Mitsursu was looking out at ea. She then heard Minato walking behind her making her sigh, "Now you know about our curse."

Minato leaned against the rail looking out to the sea, "It's not you or your Dad's curse, Mitsuru."

"Yes, it is!" She snapped at him.

"Why?" He honestly wanted to know why she thought that. She reminded him of himself. The way that he would blame his mother's death on himself is the same way she would blame herself for something that she couldn't control.

"I…I don't know…I just want my Father to stop suffering because of this…"

"Yeah I get that but you don't have to be part of the blame to do that."

"I…" Mitsuru couldn't find any argument towards that and had no choice but to agree with him, "Maybe you're right. Thank you for making me realize that."

"You're welcome." Minato started to stretch his body trying to change the subject, "Man, my body is numb because of being in a hospital bed for a long time, how about you Mitsuru?"

Mitsuru shrugged, "I'm fine; I'm just not used to lying down for so long usually after I'm done with my lessons, I practice fencing."

Minato looked at her in surprise," Whoa, you practice fencing, that's awesome!"

"You don't practice fencing?" He shook his head, "Do you know any form of swordplay?"

Minato shrugged, "No, I never did anything besides read and study."

Mitsuru smiled at a chance to having a training partner, "Well I can teach you if you want, it could also help with our training as well."

Minato beamed, "Yeah that sounds awesome!"

Takeharu appeared behind them and pointed to the front of the boat, "Look over there Minato, we're almost there."

Minato went to the front of the boat and saw an Island. On the Island was a two-story house that was brown with four windows on each floor with four on each side of the roof overhang of the door. There were steps from the door to the pier and to the side of the steps was a path that went to the beach and behind the beach was a forest.

"Woooow sir!"

Takeharu chuckled, "We're going to be here for the next four years and not only will you be training, you'll also be studying here with tutors just like Mitsuru."

Minato smiled at him but frowned, "That's sounds great sir, but what about my father?"

Takeharu sighed, "…Your father is in jail, I'm sorry."

Minato shook his head, "No, its okay, even though my Father did it because he couldn't handle what happened to my mom, it was still wrong"

Mitsuru looked at Minato confused, "Your Father did something bad?"

"I'll…tell you later Mitsuru."

"Okay, since we're friends now and you said that friends tell each other everything. So you can tell me whenever your ready to."

"Thank you, Mitsuru."

Takeharu looked at them with a smile, _"I'm glad they're getting along"_

The boat docked at the pier and the three got off the ramp. A man with glasses wearing a brown suit with brown wavy shoulder-length hair walked towards them with a maid, "Hello Takeharu, nice to see you again." The man held out his hand.

"Hello Shuji, likewise." Takeharu shook his hand, "Minato, this is our lead scientist and researcher, Shuji Ikutsuki."

Shuji looked down at Minato, "Ah…so this is the boy." He knelt in front of him and held out his hand to him, "My name is Shuji Ikutsuki."

Minato shook his hand, "Hello, Ikutsuki-san, my name is Minato Arisato."

Shuji got up from his kneeling position and laughed, "Just Shuji is fine, Ikutsuki is hard to say even I get tongued-tied sometimes haha."

"Um okay, Shuji-san."

Mitsuru's eye twitched hearing his lame jokes as usual.

Shuji turned to Takeharu, "Anyways Takeharu, I need to talk to you about their training."

Takeharu nodded and looked over at the maid, "Kikuno, can you take them and show Minato his room?"

"Of course, Kirijo-san." She gestured at the both of them to follow her and they both proceeded to follow her to the mansion.

Once they reached the steps, Shuji turned towards Takeharu, "Aigis is ready and has been refitted with rubber bullets during her repairs for their training like you asked."

Takeharu sighed, "Come on, we need to go to the lab and get everything started for their training." Shuji nodded and they both walked into the mansion.

* * *

 **Mansion 2** **nd** **Floor**

 **Bedroom**

Kikuno gestured to the opened room, "Here's your room, Arisato-san."

Mitsuru looked at Kikuno, "Thank you, Kikuno-san. You may leave." Kikuno bowed and left the room.

Minato walked into the room and started to look around, "This room is hugeeee!" The room was painted white and the floor was covered with white feathery carpet. On the other side of the room was a giant glass door that was mostly covered with a black curtain, outside of the door it looked like there was a balcony with a black rail held up by black bars. The room was mostly empty besides a black cabinet, a black computer desk with a laptop on it with a black computer chair, and a king sized bed with a white sheet and black blanket. Minato sat on the bed and started bouncing on it.

Mitsuru walked in and sat next to Minato, "I'm guessing you like it?"

Minato looked at Mitsuru with excitement in his eyes, "Yeah, my room at old home was not even close to the size of this room!"

That surprised Mitsuru, "Your old room wasn't this big?"

"Nope, I just had enough room for a bed, computer desk and a TV stand."

Mitsuru sighed, "I guess I do live a sheltered life…I thought that everyone would have big houses…or have boats and limos…"

Minato put a hand on his chin, "Well maybe once we become older, I can show you around the outside world?"

Mitsuru smiled and nodded, "That sounds good. I do need to broaden my horizons.

There was a knock on the side of the entrance to the room making the both of them look towards the door seeing Kikuno, "Excuse me Kirijo-san, your father would like to see you both."

"Thank you, Kikuno." Mitsuru and Minato got off the bed and followed after Kikuno.

Minato smiled, _"A carefree boy with a troubled past meets and becomes friends with a sheltered rich girl with a troubled family history. Why does this sound like some type of cliché romance story?"_

 **[End Notes: Okay, hopefully I made Mitsuru act more like Mitsuru (I'll admit it, Mitsuru's hard to write). So I added two chapters together to give more details into them starting their friendship. Anyways, as you can tell in her , she's doesn't know anything that doesn't have anything to do with business or being fancy so that's why she get looks at Minato confused about being excited to go on a boat and limo. Also, she thinks that everyone has the big house. So when they first go to Iwatodai dorm, Minato takes her to fastfood places, movies, etc. Also, I wanted to show that Minato uses humor to hide his sadness from his past which he tells Mitsuru later. So Mitsuru is still going to blame herself for her family's past especially after what happens between Shinjiro and the boy (Ken).]**


	4. Revelations

**Revelations**

Takeharu and Shuji were standing in a room overlooking a training ground with a group of scientists that were sitting in front of computers who were waiting to input data.. They were both waiting for the kids to come. After a bit of waiting they both heard the elevator door open making them turn around and they saw Kikuno with both of the kids.

Kikuno bowed, "Hello, Kirijo-san, I've brought them"

Takeharu nodded towards her, "Thank you Kikuno, you may be dismissed." She bowed and left.

Minato and Mitsuru walked to Takeharu, "Hello, Father" "Hey, Kirijo-san"

Takeharu chuckled, "Hello to you both and Minato you can just call me Takeharu."

Minato smiled, "Okay, Takeharu-san."

"So how do you like your new room Minato?"

Minato beamed, "It's really cool and big! Thank you again, Takeharu-san!"

Takeharu gave him a small smile, "I'm glad to hear it. Anyways, now that both of you are here, allow me to introduce you to Aigis." Takeharu gestured to the corner of the room while Shuji pressed a button on a remote.

Out of the shadows walked what looked to be a teenage girl with short blonde hair with blue eyes and unique headphones to both kids.

"Hello, I am Aigis." She introduced herself in a robotic voice.

Both Mitsuru and Minato looked at Aigis with wide eyes with shock and amusement.

Mitsuru couldn't believe what she was seeing, "F-Father? W-Who is that!?"

Takeharu laughed at both of their reactions and gestured toward Aigis, "She's an anti-shadow suppression weapon."

Minato was even more excited that she was basically a robot, "She is so cool, Takeharu-san!" But he was confused on why she looked like a girl, "But why does she look like a girl, sir?"

"Well, you need a human ego and personality to summon a persona. So we gave her a plume of dusk to give her a personality and an ego."

Minato was getting more and more excited about Aigis, "Whoa! So she can summon a persona too!?" But he got confused when he said that something called plume of dusk helped her summon a persona, "But what's a plume of dusk?"

Takeharu held his chin thinking about how to explain it in a simpler way and then nodded once he did, "Let me ask you this, did you ever wonder why I don't turn into a coffin during the Dark Hour?"

Minato nodded, "Yeah I was wondering about that when I first saw you guys."

"Well only persona-users are able to experience the Dark Hour fully. So we use the plume of dusk to be able to function in the Dark Hour and to have electricity during it as well."

Minato nodded, "Oh okay, well that explains why I was the only one to not be in a coffin." Then he wondered why the other three men were turned into shadows, "But what about your three men though? Why did they become shadows?"

Takeharu looked down in sadness shaking his head, "We still don't why…we just assumed they reacted to you and Mitsuru's personas." Minato and Mitsuru looked down now feeling like it was their fault they died. Seeing that they took it the wrong way, he instantly put a hand on both their shoulders, "We're just thinking that was the case. Even then, it wasn't either of your faults."

Minato and Mitsuru nodded slowly, "Okay, Takeharu-san." "Okay, Father."

"Good." Takeharu released their shoulders and gestured Aigis to come by him, "Anyways, Aigis is going to be your training partner" The kids looked at her in fear, "Don't worry she's has rubber bullets, they won't hurt much and if it starts to get bad I'll stop it right away." That calmed the both of them down a little bit. "So since we got a couple of hours before midnight, we're going to work on your defense."

Minato looked at him confused, "How are we going to do that, sir?"

Takeharu sighed not like the idea of hurting them, "Well, Aigis is going to…shoot you with a couple of bullets in the chest, in each arms, and in each leg; in that order repeatedly till…you can't take it anymore."

Minato nodded, "Okay sir, I'll go first then."

Mitsuru looked at him in worry, "Are you sure?"

Minato gave her a small smile, "Yeah. I'm already used to being hurt so I'll be fine."

Mitsuru nodded, "Alright, just be careful."

Minato laughed, "I'll be okay, but thanks for worrying." He and Aigis proceeded to the elevator, he looked back and waved at Mitsuru before the doors closed and the elevator went down.

Takeharu looked down at Mitsuru, "Are you going to be okay?"

Mitsuru nodded, "Y-Yes, I should be able to withstand the pain."

Takeharu sighed, _"Yet again, this is my punishment for what I didn't do. Now I have to see my daughter get shot with rubber bullets…"_

Once Shuji saw Minato and Aigis down in the training grounds, he pressed a button that activated an intercom, "Aigis, run over to the other side of the room and switch to burst fire mode"

Aigis nodded and ran to the other side of the area and raised her arm. Her hand lowered into her metal forearm and it was replaced by a gun barrel, she then aimed her gun at Minato.

"Minato, are you ready?"

Minato looked up at the room and nodded

"Alright, Commence Training!"

Aigis fired a shot at Minato's chest and he flinched a little when it hit his chest but he still stood his ground. She then shot at both his arms which he had the same reaction as before. But once Aigis shot at the legs he went into the kneeling position though he got right back up after a bit. She kept on this over and over for the next thirty minutes till Minato finally collapsed. She stopped shooting but still was aiming at him.

Mitsuru gasped and was about to go run check on him but was stopped by her father, "Wait Mitsuru! Aigis is still in firing mode." He looked over at Shuji, "Tell Aigis to cease fire." Shuji nodded and pressed the button telling Aigis to cease fire,

They all saw Aigis's gun barrel go into her metal forearm and her hand returned

Once Takeharu saw her exit firing mode, he nodded at Mitsuru letting her know that it was safe now for them to go down. When they made it down, they walked over to Minato who was indeed knocked out, and he knelt down picking up Minato and looked over at Mitsuru, "I'm going to take him to his room so he can rest. We'll start your training once I come back."

Mitsuru nodded, "Yes, father."

 **One Hour Later**

 **Minato's Room**

Minato started stirring and then slowly opened his eyes. Once he fully woke up, he slowly got up feeling a lot of pain. Once he got up, he heard his door open and saw Takeharu and Mitsuru walked in.

Takeharu smiled, "I'm glad to see you're up." He then frowned, "How are you feeling?"

Minato shrugged, "I'm doing alright, still kind of hurting."

Takeharu nodded, "That's understandable. Will you be ready for your persona training or will you like to rest till tomorrow?"

Minato shook his head and got out of bed, "We can do it today, I'm not hurting that much."

Mitsuru looked at him surprised, "How are you able to withstand so much pain? I couldn't even last that long."

Minato sighed, "Well there's a reason for that…" He looked over at Takeharu and nodded to him signaling that he was ready to tell her.

Takeharu nodded back at him in understanding, "I'm going back to the lab to get everything ready for your Persona training, come back down when it gets close to midnight." He turned around and left.

After he left, Minato looked over at Mitsuru, "Remember, when you asked me about my parents and I didn't want to talk about it?" She nodded, "Well the reason for it was because my mother died giving birth to me and my father couldn't handle it."

Mitsuru gasped, "Your mother died after giving birth to you!? That's horrible!"

Minato nodded sadly, "Yeah, I never got to meet her…"

Mitsuru didn't know what to say other than sorry, "I'm sorry Minato, I know what it's like to lose a mother but to lose one without meeting her...I=I don't know how I would feel about that…"

Minato shook his head, "But I didn't know that she had died until I turned five." He looked away, "But that's when my dad told me that she died and that she died because of me…"

Mitsuru quickly shook her head, "That's not true though."

Minato nodded, "Yeah but my dad would constantly blame me for it…but things got worse when I turned seven…" Mitsuru slowly nodded for him to continue and he sighed, "He would get into bouts of rage and start beating me…"

Mitsuru looked at him with wide eyes gasping, "He beat you!? B-But a father isn't supposed to do that! He's supposed to love you! That's absolutely terrible!"

Minato slowly nodded, "Yeah they are and it is terrible..." He looked down, "I always thought I deserved it because he made me believe that it was my fault for my mother dying…" He then gave her a small smile, "But your dad made me realize that it wasn't my fault and my dad did it because he couldn't handle my mom dying."

Mitsuru smiled at him, "I'm glad that father helped you realize that." She shook her head, "I'm so sorry you had to go through so much..."

Minato nodded, "It's okay now, your dad gave me a reason to live again and I also have a new friend as well."

"Yes, you do." Mitsuru put a hand on her chin thinking, "So is that why you're so willing to jump into danger for strangers?"

Minato shrugged, "It might be part of it but it's mostly because it's the right thing to do and also because I want to help anyone in need."

Mitsuru looked at him in admiration, "You really are admirable."

Minato laughed, "Thanks." He looked at her in happiness, "I don't know why I took so long to tell you, it hurts less the more I tell people."

She smiled at him, "It's okay, I understand why you would so thank you for telling me."

"You're welcome and thank you for listening."

Mitsuru nodded, "Of course." She started thinking then nodded soon after and smiled at him, "If there's anything you need or there's something that bothering you, then just come to me. I'll be there to help you in any way I can."

Minato looked at her in surprise, "Wow, that's great to hear! It means a lot to me." He then smiled at her, "And I will do the same for you as well."

"I'm glad to hear that." Mitsuru looked down, "Well there's something that I wanted to tell you. It's about what my grandfather did…I don't like talking about it so that's why I walked to the other side of the boat…"

Minato nodded, "That's understandable."

She continued on, "Like you, I would share the blame for what happened and I was too stubborn to admit that my father was right. There was no reason for me to blame myself. It's just that my father looked dead inside ever since then so I want to fix this as soon as possible and there's no reason to blame myself to do that."

Minato nodded, "Yeah and I'm glad you finally realize that."

Mitsuru nodded, "Yes, like I said before, you helped me with that."

After a bit of silence, Minato looked at his watched and noticed it was only eleven, "We have one hour till midnight. Should we head back to the lab?"

Mitsuru shook her head, "It wouldn't make sense to go there early." She started thinking, "Since we have an hour till midnight, why don't I teach you some fencing then? That's if you're able to though."

Minato smiled at her, "Yeah! I'm feeling a lot better than before!"

Mitsuru got up as well as Minato, "Well then we can head to gym then."

He looked at her shocked, "There's a gym here too!?"

She chuckled, "It's not a huge gym, just a small one that I use to practice fencing and yes, I know people don't have gyms in their homes."

Minato laughed, "I was wondering if you thought that."

 **Gym**

Mitsuru lead Minato through the door and into the gym. He started looked around and noticed that the floor was wooden and mostly empty except for a weapon rack filled with swords as well as long strips of metal on the floor, "Why is there a bunch of metal on the floor?"

"It's what fencers use for their matches. It's called a Piste."

Minato looked at her confused, "Piste? That's an interesting name."

Mitsuru chuckled, "It kind of is. Anyways, since we don't that much time. We will just use what we are wearing now but we usually wear fencing outfits. Let me grab our swords." She walked over to the wall holding the oddly shaped swords. She grabbed two of them and walked back to Minato handing one to him, "These are called foils and we won't get hurt because there's a little ball on the tip of them. Now look at the grip of the foil. That is called a Visconti grip. What you do is to put you thumb on top of the grip and wrap your fingers around the bottom part below the curve where there's a handle for your fingers. Not too tight or too loose"

Minato looked at the grip and then did what she said. After he did it, he started move it up and down getting used to the feeling, "This is pretty cool!"

Mitsuru gave him a small smile, "I kind of figured you would like it. Now I will teach you the stance first. Put your front foot straight forward and your back foot in a 90 degree angle from it and both of them should be bent to be able to attack and defend quickly."

Minato started to follow her instructions and after a few tries, he finally got his back foot in the right position, "This feels really weird."

Mitsuru nodded, "I know, I felt the same way when I first started doing it. Now your sword arm must be at a forty-five degree angle and your other arm must be put behind you. Like this." She got into her stance.

Minato nodded and got into the same position as her, "I didn't think fencing would have all these directions."

Mitsuru nodded again and got out of her stance, "It's a really fancy sport with a lot of rules. Now there's one more thing you have to learn for the basic form is the movement. When you move forward you have to move with your front foot first then your back foot and vice-versa when you want to move backwards. I want you to practice doing that."

"Okay." Minato put his front foot forward and then his back foot forward and started to go forward. He then started to do the opposite so he can go backwards. He was doing this for a couple of minutes and quickly got used to it.

Mitsuru smiled impressed by his quick learning, "I'm impressed that you were able to learn so quickly. I fell down a couple of times till I got a hang of it."

Minato stopped and turned over to her, "Thanks and I think it's because I'm good on my feet is why I'm able to do it easily."

Mitsuru nodded, "Yes that makes sense." She walked to the side of him, "Now, it's time I start teaching you about the basic attacks." Minato nodded, "Now, the basic form of attack is called the Lunge. Watch me first and then follow what I'm doing." She got into the stance and thrust her sword arm forward stepping her front foot forward but keeping her back foot still.

Once Minato watched her enough to understand what she was doing, he started following her movements. After a bit, Minato started to get the hang of it and stopped, "Alright, I got to hang of it."

Mitsuru stopped and smiled at him, "Good." She walked in front of him, "Now there are four attacks with the lunge: High outside, low outside, high inside, and low inside. High outside is when you attack towards the shoulder of the sword arm outside of your opponent's sword arm and low outside is when you go towards the waist again outside of your opponent's sword arm. High inside is when you attack towards the person's chest, and the low inside is the same thing as the high one but lower." She was about to start teaching him but they started hearing beeping.

Minato had a look of confusion on his face but he remembered that he set his watch to start beeping when it hit midnight and sighed in disappointment, "Aw… it's midnight…we have to go back to the lab…"

Mitsuru smiled, "It's alright, we can continue tomorrow after our studies."

Minato beamed at her, "Yeah! I like the sound of that!"

After they put the foils away, they started walking back to the lab. Minato looked over at Mitsuru, "Even though fencing is hard to learn, it's still a lot of fun!"

Mitsuru smiled at him, "I'm glad you find it enjoyable."

They both were quiet while they were walking to the lab, till Minato broke the silence, "I want to thank you and you're dad for everything you've done for me."

Mitsuru looked at him, "You don't have to thank us. You saved us from the shadows. This is the least we can do."

Minato shook his head, "Still you two brought me out of a terrible life and treated me with so much respect. I promise that I will get strong enough that I will be able to help you get rid of your family's curse so your dad can be happy again and you guys can be a normal family again."

Mitsuru's eyes went wide hearing his resolve for wanting to get stronger to help her in fixing her family's curse. She then smiled at him, "Thank you Minato, and I will become strong as well so we can fix what my grandfather has done. Together."

Minato smiled back at her, "Yeah. Together."

 **[End Notes: So there was a lot of changes but a little bit stayed mostly the same. Now you're probably wondering why Minato isn't all crying about what happened to him with his mom and dad is because he understands why his father did what he did even though it was still terrible what he did but he's still sad about his mother because he never got to meet her but he now realizes that he wasn't the reason why she died. Finally he's in a happy place now it makes him forget about the sadness but that doesn't mean he's going to forget what happened because it's going to come back later on in the story. Lastly, I wanted to add Mitsuru teaching him fencing because it would be more interesting and it will show more Minato and Mitsuru moments.]**


	5. Personas Come to Life

**Personas Come to Life**

 **[Author's Notes: So sorry for taking so long took a break from writing. Anyway, in this chapter there's going to be a little or big change from the original version and hopefully you guys like the idea.]**

Takeharu and Shuji hear the elevator door open making them turn around and see Kikuno and the children, "Ah, there you two are. You both got here just in time." Just as he says this, his and Minato's watch started beeping indicating that it was midnight. The room then became green but the computers were still in working order, "Now that it's the Dark Hour, we can finally start your persona training." Takeharu shows the two a silver case. He then presses a button on each side of the case, opening it. Once it fully opened, the children saw two silver guns without clips in them, "These are what we call evokers and they will help you summon your persona."

Minato looks at the Evokers and then up at him, "Um Takeharu-san...why are they guns?"

Takeharu looks down in thought for a way to explain it since they are still young, "Well, they're not really guns, but they are made to easily summon a persona. All you need to do is aim the evoker at your head where your persona resides in and it will send out a pulse that will break your persona's seal."

Minato nods, "I think I understand, Takeharu-san."

"Good" He turns to Mitsuru, "How about you Mitsuru, do you understand?"

She nods, "Yes father."

He offers her a small smile, "Good. Now grab the evokers and a walkie-talkie from Shuji." They nod and grab the evokers then head to Shuji.

Once they get to him, Shuji hands them a walkie talkie, "Use this if you need to talk to us. We will use the intercom to talk to you two and you both will be doing the training together so go down to the training grounds, Aigis is already down there." They both nod and go into the elevator to the training grounds.

Once the doors close, Shuji turns to Takeharu, "Shouldn't we train them in weapons as well?"

"No...knowing Mitsuru, she'll be training him in swordplay. Besides, training their persona is more important right now since neither of them know how to use them."

He nods at him then looks out the window and soon sees the two walk out to the training grounds while Aigis was on the other side of the grounds. Once he does, he presses the button to the intercom, "Now then Aigis. Summon your persona."

She nods, "Summoning Palladion!" A giant mechanical figure with a javelin coming out of it appeared behind Aigis making the two kids look at the persona in amazement.

"Hey you two. Summon your personas."

Minato puts the evoker to his head, "Aeolus! Come out!" He pulls the trigger hearing glass shatter and Aeolus appears behind him. " **Ah! Finally! Did you really have to take forever to summon me again?"** Minato quickly steps forward and turns around seeing his Aeolus, "Whoa! You look cool and you can talk!?" **Aeolus laughs, "Of course I can. Didn't you hear my awesome speech earlier?"**

Mitsuru puts the evoker to her head, "Penthesilea!" And pulls the trigger hearing the glass shatter as well and Penthesilea appears behind her. **"It feels magnificent to be out here again."**

" **Why, hello there, Penthesilea. It's nice to see meet you."**

" **Likewise. But please refrain from using 'why hello there' because it sounds like you're asking me why am I'm here but greeting me at the same time."**

 **He looks at her confused, "Uh...sure I guess."** Minato walks to Mitsuru, "Is it weird that our personas are acting like real people?"

 **She bows, "Thank you." She rises and looks at Aigis, "Now shall we begin our training?"** Mitsuru shakes her head, "I'm not sure...maybe it's because they're manifestations of our personality made physical in the Dark Hour. Just like how shadows can cause us physical harm."

 **He nods and smiles, "Of course!"** He nods, "Okay, yeah! That makes sense."

Up in the training lab, Takeharu looks down in shock, "It looks like the personas are actual communicating to each other."

Shuji nods, "Yes. It seems like it." _"I don't care if they can talk or not. They are just weapons for me to use."_ He presses the intercom button, "What are your personas skills?"

Minato looks up at Aeolus, "So what are your skills, Aeolus?" " **Well, I have wind moves that is for some reason called Garu. Oh! I can make you faster and cleave my enemies with my sword."** He smiles, "Cool!"

" **Empress. I can do ice attacks that is called Bufu, healing spells, and I can charm shadows."** Mitsuru nods, "Thank you, Penthesilea." " **Of course, Empress."**

"Now you will attack Aigis' persona. Use all of your skills at least once. Just to get used to your abilities."

"Right! You hear that Aeolus?" " **Yeah I did!" He summons a small green tornado that surrounds Palladian making it flinch a little making him sigh, "Well it seems I need to get a little stronger..."**

" **That is why we must train. Now Empress, if you allow me then I'll show you my power." "** Yes, you may. I'm still not use to having a persona so it will take me some time to get used to you." " **That is fine." Blue energy forms around her hand and then she shoots out an icicle towards Palladian making it flinch a little, "She really is an anti-shadow weapon."**

Minato holds his chin, "Did you say you can make us faster?" " **Yeah!" He presses a finger on his back and Minato's body glows green, "And there you go!" "** Whoa! I feel lighter!" He jumps up and goes twice as high then he usually can, "This is so cool!" " **But it only lasts a short time but I can keep doing it as long as I have energy." "** Alright!"

Mitsuru looks back at Pentesilea, "You mentioned that you can heal, is that correct?" " **Yes, but one of you has to be injured for you to test it out."** Mitsuru nods and turns on the walkie talkie, "Father, you must order Aigis to attack us. We have to test out my healing." There was silence on the other end making Mitsuru worry, "Father?"

"...Alright." He looks at Shuji with a frown, "Tell Aigis to attack Minato." It was half that he knew that Minato would have an easier time taking the blow and he didn't want to see his daughter hurt.

Shuji nods and presses the intercom button, "Aigis use Kill Rush on Minato and you better defend against it, Minato."

"Affirmative! Engage Palladian!" That's when Palladian goes up to Minato while he crossed his arms in front of him in an X shape. That's when Palladian hits him three times with its steel lance making Minato fall to his knees in pain.

Mitsuru was worried at first but then nods knowing what to do, "Penthesilea, heal him." " **Of course, Empress." She aims her rapier at Minato and it glows white.**

Minato glows white and it soon disappears. He smiles and gets up, "Whoa...I feel no pain now!" " **That's a great technique. You always need a healer."**

Shuji's voice appears, "Great job you two. That's it for now. Come back up."

They both nod and they get back into the elevator to the lab.

Takeharu walks up to them with a small smile, "Good job to the both of you. How are you two feeling?"

Minato smiles tiredly, "I'm a little beat...I guess the healing spell only cures injuries..." He was surprised to not hear Aeolus say anything.

"I'm exhausted as well. Though I'm sure we'll get more used to it when we keep training in the Dark Hour."

Takeharu smiles, "You are correct. Now we've seen you talking to your personas. Are you able to have a conversation with them?"

" **Yes sir. I would rather come out and bow but we can't come out on our own and this room is a little small for us." Penthesilea says.**

His eye goes wide, "I would have never believed that personas would be able to talk." He turns to Shuji, "What do you make of this?"

"It is fascinating. But it should be obvious as well since they are people from the roman history and mythology."

Takeharu nods at him and then looks at Minato, "How about Aeolus?"

"Well it seems like he's always talking but I don't know why he's being silent now." " **I'm being respectful for the man who saved you from your terrible father."**

He chuckles, "Well there's no need to show me respect for that. I'm sure you already know that it was because you two saved me and Mitsuru's life." He couldn't believe that he was having a conversation with a persona.

" **Of course, sir. Me and Penthesilea will protect Minato and your daughter. Isn't that right Penthesilea?"**

" **Yes, that is correct. Empress and Arisato will be my number one priority."**

"Thank you." He then looks at the kids, "Now get some rest you two. You will be starting your school lessons tomorrow so that's why we cut the training short today."

They both nod, "Yes, Father." "You got it, Takeharu-san." They then leave.

After they leave, Takeharu looks at Shuji, "Since personas can talk then we have no reason to experiment on them. So now you can do your research without hurting the kids."

Shuji nods, "Yes. I will begin asking them questions when they have their rest day. This will help determine the signs to find other persona users or at least how they came to be."

Takeharu nods, "Then let us wait for that till Sunday."

 **Next Day**

 **Gym**

After they finished their lessons. Mitsuru and Minato went back to the gym to continue their swordplay. But they were in the fencing outfits this time.

Mitsuru walks up to him and hands him a foil, "Now we will continue from yesterday. So get into your stance." " **I was waiting for this. I love fencing."**

Minato nods and gets onto the Piste. He then gets into the stance that she taught him, "Okay. I think I'm ready to go." " **Too fancy for me. I rather have freeform swordplay."**

She walks around him looking to make sure that he had the perfect stance and fortunately for him, he had the correct stance, "Excellent. I was hoping I wouldn't have to discipline you for failing your stance." " **Then let us have a duel then."**

He gulps, "Um...good to hear." " **A duel? What for?"**

Mitsuru goes within attacking distance and gets into stance, "Now lunge at me!" " **To see which style is better."**

Minato nods and steps forward thrusting the foil towards her but that's when she pushes his foil to the side and aims her foil right at his throat. " **Do we really have to do that? Each style is unique in their own way."**

Mitsuru smirks, **"** That is a point for me." " **Then how about this then. Let us duel so we know each other's technique to work with our strengths and weakness."**

"Okay that was awesome! Are you going to teach me that!?" **"When you put it that way, then why not?"**

She smiles, "Of course." She then gives him a stern look, "But after we work on your offense. I want you to practice the different lunges." " **Excellent! How about we do it when Minato start perfecting his swordplay?"**

He nods, "So how long do you want me to practice those? " **That sounds good to me."**

"As long as you can hold the sword." " **Then it's a duel."**

He gulps, "Okay..." " **Yeah it is."** So Mitsuru had Minato practice the lunges for about an hour till his arms went numb and he drops the foil, "C-Can't feel my arms..." " **That just means the training's working."**

Mitsuru gives him a small smile, "You lasted a lot longer than I thought you would for today's session." " **The more you train Arisato, the less it will hurt."**

"I kind of figured...so how long are we going to work on offense?"

Mitsuru didn't even skip a beat, "One year and then the next year we do defense and back. I will make sure you hone your skills and it is burned into your mind."

Minato sighs but nods, "Okay. Then let's keep going!" " **That's the spirit!"** He tries to pick up the rapier but he couldn't lift it up, "Nevermind...I can't lift it up right now..."

Mitsuru chuckles, "No need to push yourself. We have plenty of time to train."

He looks at her confused, "But wouldn't the shadows start attacking?"

"Based off of what father said. Is that shadows don't come out of Tartarus."

"That's kind of strange...well as strange as shadows can get. But I'm not complaining, those things scare me. Speaking of being scared. How are you not scared of them?"

She looks down, "At first, when I experienced the Dark Hour, I was frightened. When I told my father, he knew that he couldn't hide what had happened from me anymore. So now I knew why father looked dead inside and that's why I will do anything I can to fix this and bring my father back to his old self. No matter what." " **But you have to take some caution because you can't help your father if you are incapacitated."**

Minato nods, "Yeah! Don't worry so much! We got this." He honestly was questioning himself if they could but it wouldn't help letting Mitsuru know that. " **Let us just see where the wind takes us."**

She sighs, "I hope that we do...But that begs the question though. When did you come to me, Penthesilea?" **"Right when you experienced the Dark Hour."**

Minato sighs thinking about his father, "And I'm guessing that you arrived when my dad started hurting me, Aeolus?" " **Exactly."**

Mitsuru holds her chin thinking out loud, "So you come to people who have experienced a tragedy or a death then?" " **No...it's because you have accepted death."**

"So basically, accepting that you're going to die is what awakens to you guys?" " **Well think about it. Mitsuru over here awakened to Penthesilea defending her dad even though she knew she was going to die doing it. You awakened to me sacrificing yourself to save her and her dad knowing the same thing."**

Mitsuru nods, "Then we should tell my father this so we can find more persona-users."

Minato didn't like that idea, "We shouldn't put more people into this..."

She glares at him, "Do you honestly believe that we can do this ourselves? No. I don't like it either but what other options do we have?"

He sighs, "You're right. There's no other choice..." " **Besides, I want to see other personas."**

"I'm glad you understand. Now let us be off to the lab." " **I just hope none of them are annoying or imbeciles..."**

 **Lab**

Takeharu and Shuji were processing the information that they learned from the kids while they were in the training grounds.

After a bit, Takeharu looks at Shuji, "Find out any tragic incidents that had happened around ten years ago."

"Are you thinking that anyone around that time might actually have a persona?"

He sighs, "It's just an idea but it's the best information that we've ever gotten to finding other users. So we'll just work with that."

"Then once I find the ones who has suffered from these tragedies. Do you want me to bring them here?"

"No...monitor them. I'm not going to have them come here and have people suspicious on why the Kirijos are adopting kids...we don't need to repeat of my father."

"Then how will they train?"

"Mitsuru and Minato will. That's why they're training now. To prepare themselves and then others."

"So that's why you're not letting them train fighting actual shadows?"

Takeharu nods, "When we find at least two more. Take them to Tartarus and only let them train on the first floor."

Shuji nods, "Then I'll go tell the intel team then." He leaves.

Takeharu sighs and walks over to the window overlooking the training grounds watching the two train, "Don't worry you two...I'll find more users to help you but I will do it on my own terms..."

 **[Author's Notes: I'll admit, I didn't know how to end this chapter. Anyway, so I decided to have the personas talk because it's fun to give them their own personalities that mix in with their owners. Now I'm not sure how they find the persona-users in the game so I just came up with a way they find them and hopefully it makes sense. So, the next chapter there's two time skips one is two years later and then when they find out about Akihiko and Shinjiro and recruit them and yes, it will be done a lot better.]**

 **Reviews:**

 **Cosmic Guardian:** It was honestly confusing to know all the rules and whatnot actually. And I already have one for them but if you want to do some others. That's cool as well.

 **The Overlord of Darkness:** Now I feel like a dick. Sorry for taking so long but the next chapter is when things start getting better and it will come out sooner than this one.


	6. Akihiko and Shinjiro

**Akihiko And Shinjiro**

 **Four Years Later**

After four years of Mitsuru's training, Minato was nearing close to her skill. Of course, that had come from having intense training that made him nearly want to give up, making him never doubt her warning. But she would try to give him encouragement...in her own way but it was more like harshness in his eyes. So, now they were in the gym about to do his final lesson and that was a duel.

Mitsuru smiles, "Now for your final lesson...We shall duel." " **Ah yes! It is about time for one!"**

Minato looks at her confused that she just wanted to duel when they had throughout the years, "But we fought before? What's so different about this?" " **I have a feeling that she's been holding back during our training..."**

She nods, "You are correct, Aeolus. But that's not the only thing, we are not wearing our fencing outfits." " **They shouldn't hurt that much. It is not like they are sharp."**

He sighs knowing that this was going to be rough, "Alright then." He gets into the stance, "I am ready!" " **Good luck kid!"**

She smiles and gets into position too, "En garde!" " **Be prepared!"** Once Mitsuru says that, she rushes towards him and goes for the attack.

But when she does, he swiftly parries it, "Are you sure you're giving it your..."

That's when she instantly recovers and starts attacking him relentlessly instead of giving him time to recover like usual, "I don't lie Minato! When I say I'll give it my all! I mean it!" " **Be a man! Fight with everything you got!"**

It was a good thing that Mitsuru's training got him prepared for this, "Y-You weren't kidding!" He was able to dodge and parry most of it but she was starting to get too fast for him, "Alright! Alright! You win!" " **Uh...I don't think that she's going to stop kid!"**

"He's right! The shadows won't stop because you give up!" " **There is no giving up in war! You'll just end up looking at death's door!"**

"Fine then!" He then trips her and since she wasn't expecting him to trip him, she wasn't able to recover in time. He then stands over her and aims the end of the rapier to her throat, "I'm guessing you weren't expecting that?" " **Uh...That glare can kill anyone..."**

She was indeed glaring at him but then chuckles, "Even though I don't condone underhanded tactics...Shadows don't care about rules." " **Well done Minato, when it comes to war, you have to do whatever you can to win."**

He lets out a sigh of relief and helps her up, "That's good...I was expecting you to kill me..." " **Don't give her the idea!"**

She smiles, "It is perfectly fine, you were able to keep up with me at my best." " **You are truly becoming a warrior now, Minato."**

He smiles at her praise, "Well I'm glad that I get both of your praises and between your training and our persona training. I'm sure we will be no match for the shadows!" " **I can't wait till we start fighting the shadows!"**

She sighs, "Speaking of shadows...It's been four years and we haven't made any progress in finding more persona-users as well as not getting anywhere with the shadows." " **I agree Aeolus, I want to go back into battle."**

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Mitsuru."

Mitsuru and Minato turn to the voice seeing Takeharu, "Oh father! What do you mean?" "It might mean that they could have found more persona-users!"

Takeharu gives them a small smile, "Yes Minato, they may have the potential. Their names are Akihiko Sanada and Shinjiro Aragaki."

Minato smiles, "Alright! So how do we find them?"

He chuckles, "That's another thing that I wanted to talk about. You two will be going to junior high school. Which they are at."

Minato smiles, "Really!? Alright!" " **Junior High School? What is that?"**

Mitsuru looks at her father in confusion about why they had to go to school instead of just bringing to this island, "Why do we have to school to recruit them? We are supposed to train them here, correct?" " **I know of school but not of a Junior High School. Is it a smaller school?"**

"Well I want you two to go out into the world because I want you two try and experience being teenagers." He was scared at first to let Mitsuru to go to public school but it felt wrong for him to keep them here, "You will be staying at a dorm in Iwatodai with Shuji. He is actually the Chairman of the School Board."

Minato groans internally not liking the idea that he had to live in the same building as Shuji, "Alright then."

Mitsuru nods, "Then when will we be leaving?"

Takeharu smiles, "You will be leaving in about a week. So, get your things pack and I will make sure your accommodations are well-suited for you."

"Thank you, Father." "Yeah, thanks, Takeharu!"

"You're welcome, you two." He then leaves.

Minato cheers when he leaves, "Alright! I get to go back to school!" " **I would never had thought I would hear a child say that they would want to go back to school."**

Mitsuru smiles, "It is nice to see how happy you are but I am glad that we might have found more persona-users." " **Hmm, I wonder what their personas are like."**

He sighs from her constantly thinking about shadows, "You have to take a break from thinking about our mission. It will just drive you up the wall." " **He's right! I've seen it happen to a man's crew when they became greedy. It was disastrous."**

Her smile quickly turns into a frown, "I told you this before. I will not rest till we finish this." She turns around, "I am going to go get packed. I will see you when we have our training tonight." She walks away

Minato groans forgetting that whenever he says that she thinks too much about shadows, she gets upset, "Well that was a failure...I just want her to see there's more than just trying to fight shadows." " **It will be hard. She is one determined young lady."** "Yeah...I just hope she becomes less determined..."

* * *

 **One Week Later**

 **Iwatodai Dorms**

Mitsuru and Minato were currently in the front of the dorm waiting for Shuji Ikutsuki, whom was making checking in for them.

Minato groans, "Man, where is he? It's been almost an hour." " **It shouldn't take this long to check you guys' in."**

"Yes...I didn't think it would take this long either." " **I thought he was supposed to be Chairman? It would seem that he should automatically be able to check us in."**

Minato looks up and down seeing how big the dorm is compared to the others, "I can't believe I missed this when I would walk down here..." " **Well you were having some bad thoughts at the time, kid."**

That's when they hear tires screeching and they look to see Shuji parking his bike, "I am sorry that I have stolen your time, I didn't mean to take it." Ikutsuki says, laughing at his own joke.

" _I swear I'm going to kill him"_ Minato thinks, _"I've had to hear it all day during the trip back_ _on the boat!" "_ **Maybe you can make it look like an accident..."**

Mitsuru ignores his joke, "Can you please just open the door?" " **This man is the most insufferable man I've ever heard..."**

Shuji nods and unlocks the front door then gestures inside, "Please come in."

Once Minato walks in, he looks around, "Whoa...This place is pretty nice and kind of big!" " **You can say that again! Who needs this much space!?"**

"Yes, it is, I didn't expect it to be this big either." Mitsuru says amused. " **I'd say...But it is fit for an Empress like you."**

"Well, since we're planning to have more persona users, we need to accommodate for them. Now, your stuff is already in the room and here are your keys to your rooms." Shuji hands them their respective keys, "Mitsuru, your room is up on the third floor on the left side in the middle of the three doors and Minato yours is on the second floor at the end of the hallway to the left." They both nod and head to the staircase.

Minato sighs, "Why do I have the feeling he doesn't really care about us?" " **I had that feeling as well. Like he's forcing this who joking and kindness thing."**

"I don't know, I had rarely ever seen him even during my trips to Yakushima. This is the most I have ever seen him." " **Well I think it is because your father and him are making progress since he found Minato."**

"Maybe that's a good thing; I was ready to kill him on the boat with his terrible puns and jokes. I'm sure you would have killed him after just a few hours." " **That is true. Maybe Minato is one of those special kids that brings everyone together.**

Mitsuru nods because if that happened, she would have asked father if she could practice fencing on him, "Didn't he say that he likes puns and jokes when you first met him?" " **I do not know...But Minato does seem like a people person."**

"Yeah but I thought that was just a warning; like if I ever upset him, I would have to hear them for a whole day. I would rather get beat by my dad again." " **Whoa there, kid! That is something that I don't agree with!"**

Mitsuru glares at him, "That isn't something that you should be joking about." " **I agree with Empress, abuse is no joke."**

He chuckles, "Oh relax you two! I'm over it. Besides, if it didn't happen, I wouldn't be a persona-user and got the taste of the fancy life! Just got to look at the bright-side of things!"

Mitsuru sighs but then chuckles, "I guess you are correct."

They make it to the second floor which had a smaller set up of the living room on the other side, "Well, this is my stop; I'll see you on the fourth floor then." He heads to his room. " **Laters, Penthesilea!"**

Mitsuru nods and heads upstairs, "He is completely different from when I first met him." " **It's like his father never even abused him." "** Regardless, it will now be easier to recruit persona-users since he is able to talk to people easily."

* * *

 **Iwatodai Dorm, Command Room**

Minato was standing outside the large double door leading to the room waiting for Mitsuru, "I wonder what's taking her so long?"

" **Maybe trying to find the perfect outfit for you?"**

One of Minato's eyebrow's goes up in confusion from what he said, "What do you mean?"

" **Well, let me ask you this, do you think you could see Mitsuru in another light besides friendship?**

"In another light? So, you mean..." His eyes go wide, "Oh...I-I'm not so sure about that..." He honestly didn't think about that.

" **Well you should try think about it. You have known each other for about four years after all."**

"Uh...Okay. I guess?" He starts thinking about it but then sees Mitsuru walk upstairs, "Oh, hey Mitsuru!"

Once she walks up the last step, she walks to him, "My apologies for making you wait. Apparently, my father thought I needed a living room as a dorm room." " **I think it looks magnificent!"**

"What!? All I got was a bed and a computer desk as furniture!" " **Hey! Don't complain. You're staying in this big house and you're complaining about your room being basic!"**

Mitsuru chuckles, "Well you aren't the one for fancy things anyways. But I don't understand why I would need a couch in my room. I have no reason to invite anyone to my room." **"Now calm down Aeolus, I think his reasoning is reasonable."**

They make it up the 4th floor and see Shuji standing in front of a bunch of monitors and a map of the whole city and Island. He turns to them when he hears them enter, "Ah, there you two are, this is the command room. This is where we'll be monitoring for shadow activities and where we'll be having our meetings."

Minato looks at the monitors, "So you have hidden cameras everywhere…are there any in this dorm?"

"Yes, but they are only activated when someone activates them. So that's why I'm locking the door, which is why only Mitsuru and I will have the keys to this room. Anyway, tomorrow you two will be starting school and do not worry, you will be in the same classes together."

Mitsuru nods, "Are we allowed to recruit Sanada and Aragaki right away?"

He shakes his head, "We don't want you two to cast any suspicion. So, you'll be like regular students till we deem that it will be safe to recruit. Which will be about a year."

She sighs because she has to wait longer to get more persona-users, "That seems reasonable..."

Shuji looks at her, "Don't worry, Mitsuru. We may have two more persona-users and that means we will be able to explore Tartarus."

Minato smiles at her, "See! So, I'm sure that will be worth the wait!"

She sighs but then smiles, "You are correct. Then let us hope that they do join us."

* * *

 **One Year Later**

A teenage boy with short grey hair with bandages on his nose and above his eyebrow was walking through the hallway.

"Akihiko-senpai!" "Akihiko-kun!" A group of girls suddenly yell out to him

" _Oh great…"_ The boy that was called Akihiko turns around and sees a group of girls walking to him. He then starts walking a little bit quicker but sees another group of girls walking to him, "Great...now, I'm trapped."

Minato laughs seeing the what was unfolding, "Well, looks like the boxing captain needs help. Just like we hoped." " **I'm sure this is every guy's dream but he doesn't seem to care."**

"It seems so. Then let us proceed with your plan then." " **Maybe he's not into girls? Or maybe he's just dense?" "** _Remember, you are not to talk till they are recruited." "_ **Yes, Empress."**

"Let's go over it again, I'm going to pretend that I have an envelope of pictures of him in a locker room. Once they come to me, you convince him to join us by going after his love of training. You ready?" Once Mitsuru nods, he walks through the crowd of girls to get to the other side of the hallway. He stands on a table then takes out an envelope, "Attention girls! I have pictures of our star boxing captain Akihiko Sanada while he's in the locker room!" He yells out and to no one's surprise, all of the girls quickly spin around and rush Minato.

Once Mitsuru sees that the first part of the plan worked, she proceeds towards Akihiko, who had a confused look on his face from what had just transpired, "Akihiko Sanada, I presume?"

Akihiko turns to her now confused about her talking to him, "Uh, yeah, who's asking?"

"Mitsuru Kirijo." She looks over at Minato, "And he is Minato Arisato."

He looks behind him at Minato seeing him waving the envelope, "Does he really have pictures of me?"

"No." She decides to just get straight to the point, "Anyway, there's a reason for why we need to talk to you. Have you experienced an "other world" at midnight?"

His eyes going wide from shock, "How do you know that?"

She shakes her head, "Nevermind that, we have enemies that aren't human who need to be defeated, and we can use your skills since you won't be bound by rules against them. Not only that, this will make you even stronger."

At first, he looks at her confused but once she said that it will make him stronger, his eyes light up, "I'm in"

She was surprised from how easy it was, "Just like that? You're not going to question me?"

He nods, "From what you said, I can get stronger from fighting your 'enemies' and I won't be bound by rules, that's all I need to hear."

She smiles, "Well you're going to need this then" She hands him a small suitcase.

He grabs the suitcase and opens it revealing an evoker, "Why are you giving me a gun?"

"It technically isn't but you will need it to summon "something" that will help you fight them."

He smiles and closes the suitcase then lets it hang to his side, "I have a friend who experiences the "otherworld" as well."

"Good, go to the dorms and look for the tallest building, after you talk to your friend." Mitsuru looks behind him, "You better go, Minato just handed one of the girls the envelope."

Akihiko nods and quickly rushes around the corner. That's when Minato quickly walks up to Mitsuru, "Hey! So, were you able to recruit him?"

She nods, "Yes, even though it was oddly easy, I didn't even have to give him more reasons. Not only that, he has a friend who can help us too, it must be Shinjiro Aragaki."

"Well that's good...But I got to go just in case I get attacked! So, I'll see you at the dorm!" He quickly runs away just as the girls start looking at the pictures.

"What!? This isn't Akihiko! It's just a drawing of a stick figure that says it's Akihiko in the locker room!" All the girls groan.

Mitsuru chuckles hearing that, "Well technically, he isn't wrong." **"Unfortunately, I don't think the girls feel the same way. But it was funny, nonetheless."**

* * *

 **Hagakure Ramen**

Akihiko and Shinjiro were sitting at a restaurant counter eating ramen. Shinjiro looks at Akihiko like he grew a second head after hearing what happened, "And you believe this shit that she was saying?"

"Yeah, why would she give me a gun with no clip in it? Besides, she knows about the 'otherworld'."

"Tch, you'll do anything if it involves becoming stronger, you need to let go of the past, that fire wasn't your fault."

"I know that Shinji but I need to get stronger to protect what's precious to me."

"You do realize that I don't need your protection, I can take of myself, and you're just using this obsession to training as a way to escape from your past."

Akihiko scoffs, "Whatever...So are you coming with me to the dorms?"

"You're actually going over then?" Shinjiro sighs, "Fine, I'll go with you but I still find this shit crazy though." They both pay for their meal and head to the dorm.

* * *

 **Iwatodai Dorm**

The two teens make it to the dorm that Mitsuru described to Akihiko. Shinjiro looks up, "So, this is the place? What's the point of having something this big for two teenagers?"

Akihiko shrugs, "Maybe they have some lab that studies the 'otherworld'?"

Shinjiro shivers thinking about the place, "That place still gives me the creeps."

"Let's just knock on the door" Akihiko walks up the steps and knocks on the door.

The door soon opens and Minato appears with a smile seeing the two, "Hey guys! Come on in." They walk inside then he closes the door, "Name's Minato Arisato, nice to meet both of you."

Akihiko smiles, "Yeah, nice to meet you too." He nods towards Shinjiro, "This is a good friend of mine, Shinjiro Aragaki."

Shinjiro scoffs, "I can say my own name. Anyway, what's with this whole secretive shit? You're supposed to be some kind of secret organization?"

Minato laughs, "I guess you can say that, but if you two would follow me to the fourth floor. The Chairman can explain it to you more." They both nod and followed Minato to the fourth floor.

As they were going up, Akihiko forgot to thank him for getting him away from the girls, "By the way, thanks for your help with those girls."

he looks back at Akihiko, "So, are you always surrounded by girls?

He groans, "I don't know why they're always bothering me. Ever since I became a captain, the always been around me. It's annoying."

Shinjiro shakes his head, "You really attract the weird ones, Aki."

He chuckles, "That's probably why we're friends, Shinji."

Minato smiles guessing that they must have been friends for a long time hearing their nicknames for each other, "So, how long have you two known each other, if you don't mind me asking?"

Akihiko smiles, "We've been friends since we were kids, we met at an orphanage."

" _So, they're both orphans, it's good that they found friendship there though."_ Minato thinks

They soon make it to the fourth floor and precede into the command room, Mitsuru was sitting on the sofa while Ikutsuki was on the sofa chair, talking.

Shuji smiles seeing the two new recruits, "Ah, there you three are, come and sit down." Minato sits next to Mitsuru while Akihiko and Shinjiro sit on the couch on the opposite side, "So, you must be Akihiko Sanada and Shinjiro Aragaki, I presume?"

Akihiko nods but Shinjiro eyes them suspiciously, "First off, how in the hell did you even know we experience that world?"

Shuji nods, "He then tells them about the Dark Hour and Tartarus. Explaining that it was Mitsuru's grandfather that was the cause of it. That's why they needed more users.

Minato looks at her in pity seeing her look down in sadness knowing that it was affecting her, "Mitsuru..."

Akihiko had a confused look on his face, "So the Kirijo group was the cause of the Dark Hour and the reason for the tower is because the lab was at the High School?"

Shuji nods, "Yes, that is correct"

"And we just have to beat those twelve shadows then? Sounds easy."

Shinjiro wasn't as enthralled, "So we're just going to be fixing a family's dumbass curiosity?"

Shuji looks at him, "Unfortunately, that is correct as well. Though it seems like you don't want to be a part of this"

"We need more people, Chairman" Mitsuru says.

Shinjiro shrugs, "If what you said is true about this whole persona thing and that it could destroy this world. Then I shouldn't waste this power then, I guess I'm in."

Shuji hands him a case just like Ahihiko, "Then you'll need this."

He looks at it and then opens the case, "This is the same type of gun you gave to Aki."

Mitsuru nods, "Yes, it's called an evoker, you'll use it to summon your persona."

He looks at her, "So we're just supposed to shoot yourself in the head? What kind of crap is that?"

Shuji looks at him, "To summon a persona, you will need to be in extreme stress. So, I'll ask you this, have you ever tried to kill yourself?"

He looks at him in shock from how he says that bluntly, "Hell no! Why the hell would I want to do that!?"

"Exactly. If you have a gun pointed at your head and you don't want to die. You will be under extreme stress."

Shinjiro shakes his head not believe what he was hearing, "This sounds like some kind of occult shit..."

Minato nods, "Honestly I would have thought the same if I heard it now but it's true." He looks at his watch and it's an hour till midnight, "Well I guess we'll show you at midnight."

Shuji nods towards him, "Then would you kindly show them to their rooms." He takes out two room keys.

He nods and grabs the keys from him then looks at the other two, "So, you guys ready?" They nod and they head downstairs.

* * *

 **An Hour Later**

 **Command Room, Dark Hour**

Minato and Misuru were waiting for the other two with Shuji.

Minato looks over at her, "So what do you think of them?"

Mitsuru holds her chin, "Akihiko already sounds like a good asset since just wants to fight. But Shinjiro sounds like a he will walk away when he finds something he doesn't like, which could be bad."

He nods, "That's does sound about right. I think they're pretty cool, maybe I should start training with Akihiko. Make sure that I'm in top shape."

Her face turns into confusion, "We train already. Do you need more training that doesn't work with what we do?"

"Well we don't really do cardio. I mean, yeah, we dodge our persona attacks and we do train but that's about it."

"Hmm, that is true. Then I agree, you should train with him then."

"Well why don't you join us then?"

She shakes her head, "I think what we are doing now is sufficient enough."

He nods even though he would have liked her to come along, " _I kind of hoped you would like to come along..."_

Soon, Akihiko and Shinjiro come into the room, Shuji looks over at Minato and Mitsuru, "Alright you two, summon your personas." He says getting straight to the point.

Mitsuru and Minato get up then put their evokers to their and then head pulls the trigger and the two newcomers see glass shatter from the other side of their heads and that's when they see Penthesilea and Aeolus appear behind them.

 **Aeolus waves, "Hey! How's it going?"**

 **Penthesilea bows, "It is a pleasure to meet both of you."**

Both Akihiko and Shinjiro look at the both of the personas with their eyes wide, "What the hell!?" **"** So, you three weren't bullshitting..."

Minato laughs, "Yeah that was what we were expecting your reactions to be." " **Well, we could have told you earlier but we weren't allowed to!"**

Mitsuru nods, "We had to make sure that we don't frighten you when you hear a voice in our heads." " **It was a lot harder than I had anticipated..."**

Akihiko shakes his head out of the shock, "Okay...If they can talk then why don't we hear ours talk?"

Minato shrugs, "I'm not sure maybe because you haven't awakened to them?"

Shinjiro also shakes his out of shock, "Alright! How did you two even know that you were persona-users if you were the first ones!?"

Mitsuru sighs, "Ours were summoned when we were under a lot of stress...I'll leave it at that." " **Empress..."**

"Nevermind that." Shuji looks at the close friends, "Now will you two try to summon yours?"

Akihiko nods and grabs his evoker then points it at his but what was surprising to him was that his hand was shaking. He then takes a deep breath and thinks about seeing the orphanage burning and everyone stopping him from rushing in and trying to save his little sister. That's when a calmness surrounds him and then his eyes start glowing and he hears a voice in his head.

 **"Thou art I, and I am thou. From the sea of thy soul I cometh for I am Polydeuces, Denizen of Mount Olympus!**

That's when he pulls the trigger and glass shatters like the other two and a giant muscular man in a silver outfit and a vest appears behind him, " **Greetings to the four of you, I am Polydeuces. I hope that we can start training as soon as possible."**

Shinjiro shakes his head hearing Polydeuces, "You're so addicted to training that even your persona is obsessed with it. But I guess it's my turn then?" Seeing how easy was for his friend, he takes out his evoker and aims it at his head but he didn't feel calmness it was more like rage was surrounding him making him clench his teeth in pain.

 **"Thou art I, and I am thou. From the sea of thy soul I cometh for I am Castor, Denizen of Hades!"**

But once Shinjiro pulls the trigger and the glass breaks, he drops the evoker and holds his head in pain and a giant floating black horse with a man that looked like Polydeuces riding it with a cannon coming out of his torso, " **I am reborn..." He then sees his brother, "You...You took your father's offer and left me to Hades!" He roars.** That's when Shinjiro screams out in pain holding his head because of Castor's outburst.

Akihiko ran up to him "Shinji! Hey man, you alright?" " **B-Brother...!"**

Shinjiro got up still holding his head, "I'm fine...my head feels like it's going to split open though." **Castor calms down when he sees his summoner was in pain, "I am sorry sir...But it pains me to see my disgraceful brother reborn as well..."**

Minato looks at Mitsuru in worriment, "This didn't happen to us or Akihiko." " **It looks like he's filled with rage."**

"Yes, it looks like he has trouble controlling his persona." " **Based off of what he said, they're brothers and Polydeuces left him in Hades while he became stayed in Mount Olympus. So that is what seems to be the cause..."**

Shuji walks up to Shinjiro, "You should go get some rest and if it gets worst tomorrow. Come and see me."

Akihiko puts Shinjiro's arm around his shoulder which earns him a glare, "I know you don't like help but you can't even walk." " **I'm sorry brother..."**

Shinjiro scoffs, "Whatever..." " **Do not dare call me brother..."**

Once they both leave, Shuji looks at them, "We are going to monitor Shinjiro and if things get worst. Then we'll have to look for another user.

Minato sighs, "That's good, I was hoping that you would say that." " _I just hope nothing bad happens..." "_ **Don't say that!"**

 **[End Notes: So, in Polydeuces' and Castor's mythology, they are brothers. But when Castor dies, Polydeuces father was Zeus so he offers him a choice to either stay in Mount Olympus forever or give up half is immortality to his brother so they can live together. In it, Polydeuces chooses to share is immortality but in this story, he chooses the opposite. So. his brother was stuck in Hades and tormented. Hence why, when Shinjiro summons Castor. He experiences pain but it goes even further when Castor goes into rage. Oh and one more thing, only people that are in the Dark Hour or have the potential can hear personas. So that's why Shuji and Takeharu can't hear them outside the Dark Hour.]**


End file.
